


Papess

by zinc_chameleon



Category: Alien Series
Genre: F/M, Hans Rudi Giger
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-12
Updated: 2016-04-17
Packaged: 2018-05-13 11:02:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5705173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zinc_chameleon/pseuds/zinc_chameleon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ellen Ripley, at the end of her tether, in a time when the human race is about to be enslaved to the Xenomorphs, is called into the chamber of the Papess, the First Queen of Queens.  The Children--those humans chosen by the Papess to propogate the human race--speak in unison as the voice of the Papess.  Ripley accepts the devil's offer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Assumere Placet Figura

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Papess first emerges on Gay Pride Day 2276 in San Francisco on a hill in Golden Gate Park. A young mother (with one baby in a stroller) and two small children walk up to inspect it, thinking that it is some sort of Modern Art Sculpture.

PAPESS

"But Mummy! It smells like loaded baby diapers!" the taller of the two siblings complained.

"Probably someone made a mess near it, sweety. Smelly or not, it is a beautiful sculpture.I just want a look."

"But why?" the taller one--a blonde sylph of a girl--complained.

"It's about respect for art. Before I had you, I was a sculptor too."

"Oh alright," the taller said in a defeated tone. "You're always so crazy about dumb old art."

"Then can we go, Mummy?" the shorter of the two siblings--a brown-headed boy--asked. "I really, really want to see the Dykes on Bikes."

  


* * *

Standing the back of the crowd, she had to peer over the heads and shoulders of the casual onlookers until the Marines cleared the area. She walked up to the Squad Leader and presented herself as Ellen Ripley, Chief Flight Officer of the Nostromo, and survivor of the massacre on LV-426 fifty-seven years later.

She stood in front of the Museum of Asian Art, in the center of Golden Gate Park, San Francisco California. The main avenue thronged with thousands--nearly countless thousands--of people celebrating Pride Day. Many people, onlookers and participants, were beginning to crowd around the team of Earth Marines that surrounded Ripley on all sides.

"That thing is in holed up in there with a dozen kids, and it's got some kind of net all over them. It speaks through the kids, and told us that either we produce Ellen Ripley or the kids die," the squad leader explained. "And then you show up, out of nowhere, a legend who supposedly died over one hundred years ago."

"I didn't show up by accident. I tracked that thing here," Ripley replied.

"Yeah, but how? You've got no ID, no fixed address, no bank account, and what's worse, you're supposed to be 137 years old."

"I try to take good care of myself," Ripley answered dryly.

"Yeah, very funny. If you're lying, or nuts, all those little kids still die. I'm not going to have that on my conscience."

"If I could explain exactly how I got here, I could win the Nobel Prize, assuming that there still is a Nobel Prize."

"This thing is some kind of alien we've never seen before. Hicks says his missing great grand dad fought the same kind of monster on LV-426, but that's just mythology, as far as I am concerned." The squad leader turned his head to his right. "Sergeant Hicks, front and center."

A man, clean-shaven and short-haired, stepped up to the twosome. "How do, ma'am. Folks tell me you're the actual Ellen Ripley."

"I knew your great grandfather; he was a good man, and a better soldier."

"So, ma'am, I'm instructed to tell you that we need you as a hostage negotiator," Sergeant Hicks began. "But we need you to accept some backup. That thing will kill any human besides you who goes in there, and we're not about to risk the kids. So we need you to wear this, and then get up close and personal. You've got to touch the monster, and get some of the goo on this green patch right here."

"What will that do?" Ripley asked, taking the device and strapping it to her waist.

"This thing is a Baxter Reality Blaster. It will pick up on the creature's DNA, and not only blast it to molecules, but it will jump in and out of parallel universes until this thing doesn't exist anywhere." Hicks smiled out of the side of his mouth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Before the Alien Queen was discovered on the drop ship, she deposited her last egg in it. This egg came to be known as the Papess egg, or "Egg of the First Queen of Queens". The Papess egg has transdimensional powers, and once awakened, will spin a portal to find a safe place to grow and develop. The Alien Queen was already dying when she confronted Ripley on the hanger deck of the Sulaco. The ensuing battle was a feint to allow the Papess time to create her portal, and since she was partially human DNA, she chose a human future. This is the future that Ripley will find herself in when she awakens._
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> One of the goals of this story was to re-imagine the Alien without James Cameron's influence, as he saw them as insectoid monsters. In Ridley Scott's original film, the Alien is a creature of superior intelligence to humans, outsmarting them at every turn. That is the Alien I wish to depict here.


	2. Prima Auctoritas

Ellen Ripley had to admit to herself that the life-form towering in front of her was the most beautiful monster she had ever seen. This however did not discount the truth that it, its brood, and all its followers needed to be destroyed. Totally.

"You wish to kill me--no, destroy me utterly--with your device, yet I am innocent, a servant of higher forces, just like you," the thing whispered and hissed through the children.

Riplely found that trying to make sense of the creature's speech was like to trying to analyze 'skip' on the radio. Words came out of various children's mouths at various times, in various sequences. Ripley had the impression of a fledgling pianist trying to work out a new tune. 

"If that is true, then let these children go," Ripley stated. "We humans will then determine your innocence."

"Sadly, I cannot," the creature spoke, the words changing into a lower pitch with minor chords floating out of the children's larnyxes. "Once I have touched them, our essences mix. I am them, they are me. Apart from me they will wither and die. As will you, if you succeed in your plan. I can feel your thoughts and I watch your motions. You are beyond hope. I will give you a new hope, if you allow me to."

"Really? Then let's start on a more friendly note," Ripley said, playing for time. "I am Ellen Ripley..."

"I know who you are. I am the...Pontifex, the Bridge Builder between species..."

 _More like the devourer of species,_ Ripley thought.

The creature stopped, regarding Ripley with its sightless shimmering skull. "I am however, a female, a carrier of life, like you. You may call me...Papess." The children, eyes closed, all turned their heads to the Papess. "I wish to build a bridge between our two separate selves, Ellen Ripley. I will attempt to answer all your questions, but in my own way, and in my own time."

"And why should I do that?" Ripley retorted.

The monster was silent for a moment. Ripples of light from the morning sun played across its transparent rainbow carapace. "Your greatest wish is to see your daughter alive, and to celebrate....her eleventh birthday."

A shockwave of grief passed through Ripley, tightening her chest. "And you can do that?"

"Most certainly, though it will mean my annihilation."

"Now I know you're lying."

"You misunderstand me, and my purpose. I exist only to warn the Engineers that a crisis has occurred. I would rather be in a dreamless sleep than witness all the suffering the Warrior Caste has caused."

Ripley allowed herself the barest hope. "And just how would you reunite me with my daughter?"

"If you unite with me, we can both travel back to the space/time junction when your species met mine in serious of most unfortunate accidents."

"And we will stop the chain altogether, and you will cease to exist? I find that hard to believe."

"Here is the compromise. Before I cease to exist-as you put it--I must warn the Engineers. That is the only condition I require."

Emotion warred with reason in Ripley's heart. After a brief moment, she gave her reply. "Then let's shake on it."

"I'm so glad you agree," the Papess said, proferring her right hand with its nine-inch long fingers.

Riplely acted decisively. She grasped the hand with both of hers and pulled it down until the index finger touched the green patch on the Baxter Reality Blaster. The Papess did not react as she expected, pulling back and then attacking, but instead placed her left arm around Ripley's waist in a lover's embrace. From the place on a human torso where nipples and navel would be came three long tentacles, each with the mouth of a lamprey. Ripley prepared herself for the stabbing pain of death, but it did not come. Instead the two nipple lampreys began to eat Ripley's clothes, which disappeared in tiny puffs of colored smoke. The navel lamprey snaked under her groin and gently inserted itself into her anus. Ripley's shock at this anatomical invasion was matched by her perception that this lamprey was giving her some sort of enema.

Dozens of other lampreys snaked out of the Papess' armpits, while the children obediently sat down in front of the monster, looking for all the world like a primary school class taking its graduation picture. Brass ornaments, chrome door knobs, stainless steel ventilation covers were converted into an artist's pallet of smoking colored flames. These were applied to Ripley's body like a master portrait artist's brushes. Finally Ripley could feel all her body hair--especially from top of head to groin--fizzling away as the nipple lampreys finished their work. The Papess released Ripley from her demon lover's grip, the lampreys withdrawing back into her body.

"I have touched your machine. You can now kill me everywhere, for ever, if you choose; but you will also disappear from eternity. The Papess turned her massive head to a full-length mirror kept in the corner of the room for patrons to examine themselves when they wore some of the ancient Asian costumes kept there for galas. "But before you do, look in the mirror. Do you see a monster staring back at you?"

Ripley walked toward the mirror tentatively at first, then strode over to it in disbelief. A gentle, beautiful elf arrayed in clothing made of miniscule woven pearls, shimmering with bronze overtones, looked back at her. Ripley, a tired, bedraggled thirty-seven-year-old gazed at a gorgeous twenty-five-year-old, more curvaceous and well-exercized than Ripley had been at that age, as she had always been too busy doing the endless technical tasks on a space freighter to spend time making herself alluring. All her hair had vanished, except for her eyelashes. Her eyelids were now died a royal violet, making her brown eyes appear much larger. Her often-sallow complexion now glowed with the pink tones of youth.

"You do have a sense of aesthetics," Ripley admitted. "But am I your slave, like the children now?"

"Not at all," the Papess breathed, the children now standing up to resume their duties as interpreters. "We are partners in a great adventure, you and I. Shall we begin our journey?"


	3. In Ore Foraminis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Future Ripley appears in front of Kane in the belly of the Warrior Clan ship, wearing Xenomorph armor interfaced with her human body, so that it does not require an oxygen helmet. She orders Kane to step aside, and using her command powers, a gift from the Papess, makes the egg open in front of Kane. He signals to the Nostromo that Office Ripley is standing right in front of him, wearing armor that looks just like the technology worn by the dead Pilot. Office Ripley replies from the Nostromo, telling him that he is hallucinating, and to take a shot of the anti-anxiety drug located in his suit for just such emergencies. Future Ripley's attempts at convincing the crew of the Nostromo fail.

_The Papess shows Ripley that the choices they make in their combined lives may have many multiple outcomes. This chapter deals with three of the most likely outcomes of the Nostromo's discovery of the Warrior Dropship. Ripley lives through each, and must choose which one she will accept. Ripley's goal witll remain constant however: to attend her daughter's eleventh birthday party._

_Possibility One: Ripley manhandles Kane, forcing him back up to the Pilot's chair, where she confronts Dallas and Lambert, telling them that this is a Alien Warrior dropship, and she has traveled back through space and time to warn them. Ripley demands that the Papess activate the Warrior Dropship, which the Papess warns against, as it has not been used for over 100,000 years, and because of its condition, its drives implode. This outcome throws Ripley back to the Papess._

_Possibility Two: Future Ripley appears on the command deck of the Nostromo, confronts herself and Ash, traps Dallas, Lambert and the unconscious Kane in the airlock, reversing the atmosphere, and jettisoning all three of them onto the surface of LV-426 where they all die. Ash kills Officer Ripley, and this outcome also throws Ripley back to the Papess._

_Possibility Three: The Ripleys, now knowing that the Alien Warrior is pursuing them, turn the tables by working together, and by ignoring the dying Kane and the abomination of Brett, actively fight the Alien, using the flamethrower, and a hastily-made-up plastic glue from the laboratory. They plaster the Alien to a wall, and burn it to a cinder, managing to turn off the auto-destruct feature in time. In this possibility a new future is created. The problem with this solution is that the plastic is also highly explosive, and the Alien Warrior DNA is vaporized and spread throughout the entire length of the Nostromo, some of which also entering Office Ripley's lungs. Along with Dallas's and Kane's transmuted bodies, Weyland Yutani has everything it needs to create synthetic Aliens. In this outcome, Ripley does return home, and celebrates her daughter's eleventh birthday. The more serious problem is that now Weyland-Yutani has the Alien DNA, plus the Warrior Dropship. Ten years later, the Dropship is repaired by the Weyland Yutani corporation, and its first space flight is on the television in the background while Ripley's daughter is blowing out the candles on her twenty-first birthday cake. The flight alerts the Engineers, and instantly they come in full force to wipe out humanity._

_Future Ripley awakens back in the Asian Museum. The Papess explains that they both exist in multiple dimensions, and neither can die until both of them perish in all their combined parallel dimensions. Beaten, Future Ripley asks if there is an infinite number of them, and the Papess replies: "No, there are only nine. And you have used up three. You need to focus on a more intelligent choice in one of the possibilities that you have experienced already. There is one solution that will cause the remaining six possibilities to collapse into one."_

_Future Ripley thinks it over, and says: "It's all so simple. I need to kill Ash just as he is about to open the airlock and let Kane in."_

_The Papess is almost conciliatory to Ripley. "Officer Ellen Ripley, how long did you work for Weyland Yutani?"_

_"Eight years."_

_"In all that time, did you ever see the corporation act without contingency plans, usually several of them?"_

_"No. I see where this is going. How many Ashes were there aboard the Nostromo?"_

_"Three. One was watching over the Alien while it grew from its Chestburster phase to its full Warrior phase. Who do you think fed it? The Warrior is a biological entity, after all."_

_"And the other?"_

_"Down in the hold, the place where Parker and Brett were claiming they saw unexplained movement."_

_"So I have to kill all three?"_

_"Yes. And protect Officer Ripley. The rest of the crew are expendable."_

The trip back in space and time left Ripley confused and nauseous, despite all the assurances that the Papess--who herself did not have to travel back--had made. The shock of finding herself in the belly of the derelict spacecraft--now that she knew it was a Warrior Dropship of the Engineers--did not frighten her as much as her first lungful of the primitive atmosphere. She tasted the stink of nitrous oxide and the heaviness of methane for a fraction of a second before her Xenomorph armor adapted, replacing it with clean, bracing oxygen.


	4. Optima electio periculosissimus.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Future Ripley returns to the Nostromo, to kill the Ashes one by one. She learns too late that they are all in constant communication with one another.

The deep hold of the Nostromo was just as dark, dank and claustrophobic as Future Ripley remembered it.

**Author's Note:**

> The Papess is the last egg a Warrior Queen lays before she dies. The Papess can make a limited number of trans-dimensional--which includes travel in space/time--as she has been designed that way by the Engineers. Ripley discovers that the Papess has no idea where the Engineers have gone; they are mostly likely not even in our Universe any more. Ripley must work with the Papess so that she can go back in time to LV-426 and stop Cain from leaning over the Warrior Egg, the event which began the whole evil cycle.


End file.
